Ignorance

"Everyone goes through changes
Looking to find the truth
Don't look at me for answers
Don't ask me - I don't know "
--Ozzy Osbourne

If there is one thing I wish I could change about the world, or at least about the people inhabiting it, it would be to bestow upon them the ability to admit ignorance. A trace of genuine modesty at even half the level of the false modesty that is commonplace in the population would do wonders to improve the quality of our society.

Ask a man "do you know everything?" and he will surely reply that he does not. He may even joke about his ignorance and happily say he knows little; yet, ask that same man about his opinion on some topic and rather than simply admitting he knows little about it, he will oftentimes give you some uninformed bit of half-thought-out gibberish; this is what people do.

Of all the characteristics of humans, I find knee-jerk reactions to be one of the least appealing. To think about something for a while and treat it with genuine criticism, to challenge yourself and force yourself to provide good logic before deciding something is an ideal mode in my opinion, even if it means you have to keep silent for a few seconds longer. I am not claiming to be perfect at doing this, but it is a piece of self-improvement I try to work on as much as I can.

Unfortunately, it is often the knee-jerk reactions that rule the day, and many people will seemingly spout the first bit of words that enter their mind at the presentation of some fact or topic without giving it a second thought; they would never pretend to be experts in the field of what is being discussed, but undoubtedly have little problem dismissing those who are with a wave of their hand and a jerk of their knee if they don't like what they say. To the average person, the truth is what you want it to be, no matter how illogical or nonfactual.

Is it so hard to simply admit that you don't know? That you should think about something before giving your thoughts? Maybe do a little research? A little bit of skepticism would do the world a lot of good on both sides. A lot of people are skeptical of authority, of the integrity of companies or authority figures dispensing information, but few seem to be skeptical of the media, or of the common man. Why we should be more trusting of the bearded man in the alley than we should of a professor is a mystery to me.

In a recent back-and-forth about the contents of arsenic in apple juice, a commenter said the following:

"The fact were debating 'safe' amounts of arsenic in apple juice is ridiculous!! It doesn’t belong there. But hey were getting trace of amounts of mercury in our kids vaccines……FDA says its 'safe'!"

This is a wonderful piece of knee-jerk ignorance that exemplifies the thinking of the common man. Arsenic = bad. If apple juice contains arsenic, it is poison; and while we are understandably skeptical of the FDA, we don't use that same piece of skepticism on random celebrities who famously collect wealth by spreading misinformation and outright lies.

When it comes to arsenic, as is often (if not always) the case, there is no black and white. Truthfully, there are few things in life that are "good" or "evil;" This is a theme that was portrayed wonderfully in Drive, the film I watched on Saturday. People and things are complicated, with good sides and bad sides, helpful pieces and side-effects, roses and thorns.

As it is with humans, as it is with food and drugs and chemicals. Arsenic, of course, is a natural element of the Universe. Like almost anything else, it can be helpful in small doses and harmful in large ones. Arsenic for hundreds of years has been used for various medicines and is still occasionally used in treatments of certain forms of cancer. At (very) small doses it is a helpful chemical, even though it is in large doses deadly. This is the way things are; just about everything on the planet has a Goldilocks zone of effectiveness. Even the most ubiquitous and important chemical compound on Earth, water, has this characteristic. Too little water and you die of dehydration. Too much water and you can flush the electrolytes out of your system and die of water intoxication. There are always limits.

As is often the case, the word is more important than the facts, and the word "arsenic" makes people quiver without spending any time researching or thinking about it.

The same, of course, is true with Mercury, which, indeed, is occasionally used as a preservative in vaccines. Despite the scary-sounding word and the symbol with the devil horns on it, Mercury is just an element, as "natural" as any other, and there is probably more of it in that tuna sandwich that you had for lunch than in all of your vaccines combined.

This is the sort of comment that irks me, because it exemplifies a person who is proud of her ignorance, and who will use her ignorance to willfully dismiss all of the arguments of people who actually study a topic professionally and have devoted their lives to researching it. Based on some knee-jerk misconceptions that she has gathered in her life and some negative connotations that she's associated with scary-sounding words, she is willing to dismiss someone and libel them as being on the take because she would rather live in a black-and-white bubble than challenge her own knee-jerk thoughts and give someone the benefit of the doubt.

When we hear something that sounds scary, why not take a step back, and think about it for a moment. Why not lend a little bit of credit to people who spend their lives studying it and not wave them out of hand or accuse them of taking a bribe because we'd rather use generalizations and characterizations than accept that the world is complicated and not everyone is out to get you? The paranoia of the general public in the case of medicine is a baffling one to me. As if there is a team of cunning sociopaths who are hell-bent on secretly poisoning you with apple juice and are spending billions of dollars in hush-money to try to cover it up. It is greatly amusing to me that we apparently now live in a world where the general public is highly mistrusting of organizations like the FDA, and yet at the same time, are gleefully and devotedly trusting of a handsome face on television who is armed with a big smile and little evidence. Yes, he will save you from those evil corporations who want your money; just buy his book and you'll see...

It is a shame that people will stand in line for hours to pay hundreds of dollars on the latest piece of apple-branded technology, despite the fact that each and every one of them already possesses a version of the most powerful computer on the planet, and few of them want to use it.